7'X24' Vnose Toy Hauler

[8ball_99]

How much clearance do you have between the water tanks and the ground?

Sorry David I never seen your post, I know you asked a long time ago so it probably doesn't matter now, But I have about 12" of clearance between my grey and black water tanks and the ground. Probably around 8-9 between the fresh water tanks and the ground. Thats one of the reasons they are set back between the axles. I'll check tonight to make sure if those numbers are right.
My trailer sits up a little taller because I had them put straight axles on vs drop.. Rasies the trailer up about 4" taller then standard. Straight axles are also couple hundred bucks cheaper at most places...

[Sevo]

8_ball,

I am in the planning stages of my bathroom, How did you attach your FRP to the metal frame? I know on the plywood I can use some adhesive, did you use screws to hold the FRP to the metal?

When you did your pluming under the trailer, Did you route it under the metal braces or did you cut round holes and go through them?

What size pipe did you use for your toilet drain and shower drain?

WHere is the best place to get the sewer plumbing pipe for the toilet, sink and shower? Can I get it all at HD or do I need special RV pipe?

If you don't mind taking a picture under your trailer of your system that would be awesome, I learn so much faster from pictures

thanks for all the help

Chris

[8ball_99]

8_ball,

I am in the planning stages of my bathroom, How did you attach your FRP to the metal frame? I know on the plywood I can use some adhesive, did you use screws to hold the FRP to the metal?

When you did your pluming under the trailer, Did you route it under the metal braces or did you cut round holes and go through them?

What size pipe did you use for your toilet drain and shower drain?

WHere is the best place to get the sewer plumbing pipe for the toilet, sink and shower? Can I get it all at HD or do I need special RV pipe?

If you don't mind taking a picture under your trailer of your system that would be awesome, I learn so much faster from pictures

thanks for all the help

Chris

Lets see here,
FRP is glued to plywood. I attached the plywood with screws first.. You do not wan to glue FRP straight to the studs. Its very thin and needs some kind of backing.

I ran the plumping through the braces. The toilet is a 3" drain but the toilet sits directly over the tank. The only plumbing I ran through the floor joists was for the shower. Its 1.5" drain if I remember right

Most all the plumbing is pretty standard. I did use ABS pipe vs PVC.. With big box stores its kind of hit or miss.. Some sell ABS some don't.. Most of mine came from lowes. The dump valves and some of the more special tank fittings you have to get from an RV store.

I wouldn't mind taking a picture, But the problem is its hard to get any good pictures of under the trailer. I took a couple while building it and your so close to the floor you really can't get back far enough to get a picture. You just end up with a close up of a small area. Thats why the only plumbing shots I posted were of under the cabinets and the dump valves. There isn't much to the waste water plumbing anyway. There is a trap below the floor under the shower from there the 1.5" line runs through a floor joist above the black water tank then through another joist. Its plumped into the greywater tank on the end. There is a trap below the sink then that line drops straight into the greywater tank through the floor. There is a under the sink vent on that line as well. The greywater tank also has a 1.5" vent that runs up through the floor and ties into the vent from the black water tank then a single line runs up to the roof.
The black water tank just has the toilet. Figure out where you want your toilet, make sure you can get the tank under the toilet. Then its just a matter of drilling a hole through the floor and through the tank. Just drill a small hole to start with. Drop the tank and make sure the 3" drain will fit. For the toilet flange and the tank fitting. Its a good idea to get a threaded flange vs a glue joint.. That way if you ever need/want to drop the tank you can just unscrew the the toilet flange.
Any holding tanks you have need an air vent in the top of the tank that runs up to the roof. This is for the gasses to escape but also so the water will drain to and from the tanks. I tied both my vents together due to space reasons. As long as they connect above the tanks thats fine.

[Sevo]

Thank you for the reply. That helps out a lot.

So you first put down all plywood on your metal frame then attached the FRP, that makes sense thank you!

Is there any space between the bottom side of the floor and your top side of your holding tanks? Or is it a pretty tight fit? I ask this because you said your ran your shower drain line over the black water tank after the trap. How did you do that? I dont have a lot of room under my trailer and I dont think I can drop the tanks very much?

I was thinking of using a plasma cutter or a whole saw to make the holes in the floor joists, how tough is it to get through the joists?

What did you use for your black water tank? You mentioned ebay, do you have a link from that auction?

I was going to weld tank brackets in to hold the tanks. Is this what you did to secure your tanks to the trailer. I couldn't tell by your pictures.

I fogot to ask, I really like the lights on the outside of your tailer, who makes those and who makes those LED dome lights. I like that you dont have to wire switches. That will save me a lot of time.

thanks again for all of your help, it really is helping me get my trailer together without to many errors. I hope you dont mind all of the questions. I just want to make sure I do it right the first time.

kindest regards

Chris

[8ball_99]

With the FRP it doesn't take much behind it.. I used the 3/8 ply that came with the trailer on the outside wall but on the wall behind the toilet I just used some 1/4 luan.

My grey and black water tanks do have gaps above them. About 2"s. Couple reasons why. I have poly tanks not ABS. The poly tanks I have flare out at the top. The idea is to give you a place to hang them. With my trailer it was easier and just worked better to let that lip sit on the L part of the floor joist. Ground clearance wasn't an issue and my floor joists are 6" not 4" so there was plenty of room between the floor and the bottom of the joist. The tanks are made so they will work with either a 4" or 6" joist.. With a 4" joist the tank sits tight up against the floor. One side sits on the factory joist. On the other side I took a piece of 1"x1" square and bolted it to the trailers frame to hold the other other side of the tank up. The square tubing also has a small piece of tubing welded on each end of the tank. So that one bar thats bolted in is all that holds the tank in place.. Remove the bolts and the bar and I can drop the tank.
With an ABS tank they have a flange around the top and you bolt them to the floor. Probably a little easier to mount them. But the tanks are more expensive and if the tank needs removed getting to the heads of the bolts could be interested with the flooring down.
Crappy picture but you can kind of see how the tanks hang.


I just used a hole saw to cut the holes for the pipe. Its not super easy to cut them but a bimetal hole saw will do it NP

Both my grey and black water tanks came from here http://stores.ebay.com/TRI-STATE-ROCK-Y ... ORE?_rdc=1 They are 36 gallon poly tanks.. He doesn't have anything listed right now though

I did wire switches for all my lights even though they have switches on them.. The inside led dome lights were just cheap lights off of ebay and I added the leds myself. I also wired them so the switch on the lights works almost like a dimmer. There is four leds in each light. I use the wall switch to turn the lights on and off but clicking the switch on the light itself either switching between either 2 leds or all four leds.. Idea is one boon docking or at night I can just run the lights on low to save power. Then if extra light is needed or I have plenty of power I can click the switch on the light turning all four leds on.

Np, I don't mind. I know its a lot involved and trying to work out the details can be tuff. Best advice I can give is get a ruff idea of what and how you want things.. But don't set it in stone.. Once you start working on the trailer you can figure out some of the details. Some stuff won't work out like you planned some stuff will work better then you planned..

[8ball_99]

I don't have time to do it right now, But I'm kicking around the idea of adding a second battery and mounting both of them under the floor of the trailer. This would be me a larger power reserve and would get a little weight off the tongue. The battery on the tongue doesnt' bother me but I do not have room for a second one. Even if I did I don't think I'd want that kind of weight so far forward. If I did this I'd want an access door in the floor for setting the batteries and for doing maintence on them. I've seen spare tire boxes in the floors of race car trailers so the idea is to somewhat mimic that but use the space for batteries. The box woul be well vented and I'd use weather striping to help seal it off from the trailer. My question is has anyone put a hatch in their trailer like this? Maybe have any pictures? For that matter if someone just has some pictures of one that was done at the factory that would help also. I'm pretty sure once I get working on it I could make it work. Just be nice to see how others went about it.. Right now I'm thinking a metal framed box with angle iron around the top for the door to sit on. Making the frame the same size as the space between the joists and just welding it to them. Then a piano on one side of the door with flush mount d ring on the other for a handle?

[Sevo]

I don't have time to do it right now, But I'm kicking around the idea of adding a second battery and mounting both of them under the floor of the trailer. This would be me a larger power reserve and would get a little weight off the tongue. The battery on the tongue doesnt' bother me but I do not have room for a second one. Even if I did I don't think I'd want that kind of weight so far forward. If I did this I'd want an access door in the floor for setting the batteries and for doing maintence on them. I've seen spare tire boxes in the floors of race car trailers so the idea is to somewhat mimic that but use the space for batteries. The box woul be well vented and I'd use weather striping to help seal it off from the trailer. My question is has anyone put a hatch in their trailer like this? Maybe have any pictures? For that matter if someone just has some pictures of one that was done at the factory that would help also. I'm pretty sure once I get working on it I could make it work. Just be nice to see how others went about it.. Right now I'm thinking a metal framed box with angle iron around the top for the door to sit on. Making the frame the same size as the space between the joists and just welding it to them. Then a piano on one side of the door with flush mount d ring on the other for a handle?

I like the idea as well. I was just going to ask what batter box you are using?

Do you find one not to be enough?

I may take a look at my trailer and see what I can come up with. What is the smallest battery with the biggest bang? Do you have a link? I would like to see what the measurements are?

As he mentioned has one done this already??? Please post pics if so.

[8ball_99]

One battery is ok, I'm very close to odering me a solar panel or two and a charger. If I had that the single battery would probably be plenty. My issue I have two fantastic fans, radio, and a water pump. The water pump doesnt' see that much use. The two fantastic fans though will run pretty much non stop during the day. Also the Radio stays on most of the time also. Between that stuff and a light getting turned on here and there the battery can get a little low by night time. Your not suppose to run a deep cycle down below 50%. So what happens in the evening I end up running my generator just to recharge the battery to replace the power that was used during the day. Just both fans running on low is pulling 4 amps. Which is not a ton of power but you figure that over 8-10 hours. Thats enough draw to need to charge a single battery. On top of that at night the water pump and lights get used so there is more draw. What doesn't help is my power converter is kinda of on the small side.. So at night when we come in I'll fire the generator up to charge the battery, But at the same time we have lights on, water pump running ect. Which means the battery charges even slower since the converter is also having to run the stuff thats in use. I really think for my size trailer a couple of deep cycle batteries and a solar panel or two is really whats needed to not have to bother with running the generator just to charge the battery. I would like to only use the generator for times when I need to use the microwave or if the AC is needed.

I figure an 80 or 100 watt panel would atleast cancel out the fans and radio during the day. The idea setup would be to have enough solar to not only off set the usage in the day but to replace the power used over night. For that I figure I would need 2-3 panels. I don't know much about solar so I'm open to suggestions on what to get! I have the roof space for pretty much what ever panel/s I want. I just want to keep the cost down as much as I can.

[8ball_99]

Well I guess I shouldn't have got to thinking about what I needed for boondocking.. I just ordered a couple of 80 watt panels, a Xantrex C35 35A controller and the cables and connectors to put it together. I went with the 35A controller cause it was only a few dollars more then a 20 amp.. If I decide need another panel or two I have the ability to add them with out needing a larger controller. With the two panels that should be enough to offset the fans and radio. Maybe even have a couple amps left over for charging the battery to replace what was used the night before.. We will see. I have a feeling to really cover all our power usage we will need two more panels. Kind of expensive for the amount of power you get. But the places we camp charge 30-35 bucks a night for an RV spot. Vs 15 for primiative. We also have a hard time getting an RV spot on holiday weekends. So the 30-45 bucks a weekend we will save on camping spots here and there and the convenience of not having to crank the generator up to charge the battery all the time will make up for it.

[bc toys]

8ball why we not seeing your pics I like reading your pot what you using for flooring and wall board I need pics

[8ball_99]

8ball why we not seeing your pics I like reading your pot what you using for flooring and wall board I need pics

Lol Go back to page one. I've got pictures of the finished trailer. We have been camping in it for almost a year now. I really haven't added much of anything since I built the trailer last year. I picked up the trailer at the dealer and after about 3 months of working on it here and there I had it done. We camped in it a couple of times while I was working on it and I made a few changes then. Since then though I haven't really changed anything. I have the solar setup on order. I also ordered a 600 watt inverter today. As of this afternoon I've decided to go ahead and add the hatch in the floor that I mentioned a few posts back. I think I have it figured out how I'm going to do it even though I didn't get any suggestions on here! I'm going to move the battery from the front of the tongue place it and a second one in the hatch. One of my freshwater tanks is mounted between the axles the other is mounted right in front of the axle. So the hatch will have to go infront of that tank. This puts the weight of the batteries much closer to the axles.. I'm really not worried about the extra weight of another battery on the tongue. But space is tight up there as it is. Plus moving the battery not only lightens up the tongue it will also give me a spot for a small box on the tongue to store drop cords, awning lights ect. Small Stuff I've been wanting to find a spot for besides the closet inside.

Don't worry though, between cutting a hole out in the floor adding a solar set up and inverter I'll have a few new pictures to post up! I'm looking forward to it. I've been wanting a larger battery reserve and a solar setup up for awhile now. We have a trip planned on the 24-27th of this month and all the RV spots are long gone.. so we will be boon docking in a field. Good test run of the new add ons.

[8ball_99]

Well I got around to doing my cargo compartment. I got everything cut, welded and painted. I plan on getting the door on tomorrow. Need to go pick up some aluminum Angle to trim it out.

Here is how I went about adding the box. I started out by drilling up through the floor from the bottom in each corner. Then took a straight edge to cut out the rubber flooring. Took a skill saw and set the blade to the same depth as the thickness of the wood floor and cut the hole out. Used a chisel to finish the corner cuts. Then it was just a matter of bracing the top of the hole and cutting out the floor joist that was in the way. Then famed out the rest and installed the sheet metal.

[prodart]

simply awesome

[Gadget Man]

That in-floor storage is just amazing. Super strong. I love it.
I had a box in the floor like that in my first build, my Weekender.
I didn't even think of doing one in this trailer, but now you have me thinking....

Gadget Man

[nuclearfly]

Just like the Millennium Falcon.